The Luxembourg Ministry of Health has released statistics on the causes of death in 2015, with cardiovascular diseases and cancer in the leading positions.

The Ministry of Health’s mortality statistics, developed on the basis of the International Statistical Classification of Diseases (ICD-10) and the World Health Organization (WHO), show that in 2015 3,936 deaths were registered in the territory of the Grand Duchy, of which 49.2% were men and 50.8% women.

On average, 11 people died a day in 2015, 76 per week, 328 per month, a slight increase of 3.5% from the previous year. Whilst 92.8% of all deaths were due to illnesses, 7.2% were attributable to external causes.

Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death with 30% of deaths, in other words 1,187 deaths (552 men and 635 women). This figure is stable compared to 2014. However, the proportion of cardiovascular deaths has decreased over the past 10 years, from 39.8% to 30.2% of total deaths.

The second leading cause of death is cancer, with 28.2% of all deaths (1,108 people). Among those who died of cancer, 52.2% were men and 47.8% women. Men died mainly from lung cancer (148 deaths), colorectal cancer (57) and prostate cancer (57). Among women, breast cancer (97 deaths), lung cancer (80) and colorectal cancer (58) were the most frequent causes of cancer-related death.

Unlike cardiovascular diseases, the share of deaths due to cancer has increased slightly since 2005, from 25.8% to 28.2%.

Respiratory diseases are the third leading cause of death with 8.2% of total deaths (323 people).

Deaths due to external causes came in 4th place with 285 deaths (7.2%). A total of 81 deaths were attributable to suicide or unintended events (61 men and 20 women). In addition, 56 people died as a result of a fall and 36 people as a result of a transportation accident (29 men and 7 women).

2.5% of deaths registered in Luxembourg relate to non-resident persons, whose rate of transport accidents was 30.6%. Mental and behavioural-related mortality (mainly dementia) has increased since 2011, from 99 cases in 2011 to 231 cases in 2015.